This is a blog about Singapore and our social and business connectivity with the world. It is about what's happening in Singapore and outside Singapore and how we can thrive and survive in an increasingly flatter world.

Contributors

George YeoMinister of Foreign Affairs, Singapore. Guest Columnist of BeyondSG. He is on Facebook. Readers are welcome to join his Facebook network at http://www.facebook.com/georgeyeopage

Harold FockEntrepreneur (Chief Editor of BeyondSG).
Deputy CEO/CFO of a listed technology company in Asia and CEO of Foundation Capital Pte Ltd, a hedge fund based in Singapore.

February 27, 2010

Kofi Annan

Former UNSG Kofi Annan is much admired for his wisdom,
his measured comments about international issues and his dignified
demeanour.Singapore is fortunate to
have him become the first Li Ka-shing Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy.For this, we have to
congratulate the Dean, Kishore Mahbubani who knew Prof Annan when he was our UN
Perm Rep in New York.He will be here
for a whole week. I learnt much from his insights at SM Goh's dinner for him
last night at the Istana.

Comments

Hi, I'm a resident of this particular condo, Baywater located within the Bedok Reservoir proximity. Pardon me for commenting here as I'm not sure how and where I can voice out to you. Recently, my family and I have been greatly disturbed by this ongoing construction work happening at the Waterfront Key, which is situated just beside my residential area. I was informed that there's a particular rule stating that all construction works ought to stop by 7pm. The time now is 3.23am and the construction team are still contributing to the loud noises despite them having receive the fines from the NEA.

This turmoil started when I was having a family dinner at around 7 in the evening. When our gathering ended at 11pm, the noise still persisted on. As a result,my father called up the police and in return, they wanted us to call up the NEA; claiming that they are not in charge of such cases (they said that they only take charge of HDB cases, which I don't quite get what they're driving at).

We then turned to the NEA to complain about this matter. Though the authorities did look up into the matter and had issued fines (which is of accordance to their standard procedures), the construction works continued.

After 4-5 calls made to the NEA and 2 calls to the police, nothing beneficial to us was done to put an end to the problem. As such, we decided to make a final call to the police. I was very frustrated and questioned the person in-charge whether the police force would step into this matter as the NEA remains incapable of resolving the issue. She answered me, saying that the police can only refer the case to the NEA and blah blah blah...The most absurd thing was that she can even giggle a little, and after which told me that I should go to the media or the MP (Mr George Yeo) to get this problem solved. I don't think this should be treated as a laughing matter though. It's torturous for us to having to endure the noise day and night. My parents still have to work the next day and there's no way that we can get to sleep given by the amount of noise the construction site has made.

I feel very puzzled about this whole matter. I mean, why can't the police force step in and help resolve this problem? I hope that you would be able to enlighten me with regards to this problem. I look forward to your reply soon.